THE PUNISHMENT OF THE “LOST.”
By MYSTIC
[The following article comes from a respected gentleman in the government service of Great Britain. He prefers that his name should not be given.] THE ordinary belief of the religious world concerning the lost, is that they will suffer eternal pain; but when we examine closely the Scriptures, we find, as common sense might lead us to expect, that God will inflict no disproportionate punishment but “reward every man according to his deeds,” which, in our knowledge of things, would not be the case should everlasting pain be meted out for transgressions committed during a man’s lifetime; which is but “a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and vanisheth away.” Man, we are told in Holy Writ, has given him in this world, the choice of eternal life or eternal death; of living forever with Christ, or of perishing everlastingly. Our Lord says, “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment.” Matt. 25:46. The punishment, therefore, is eternal, and universalism thus splits to pieces on our Saviour’s words. What, then, is the punishment? The Word of God seems to the writer to answer, Destruction! Note the following expressions of Holy Writ:— “All the wicked will He destroy.” “And shall consume . . . both soul and body.” “Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction.” “He hath utterly destroyed them.” “None shall pass through it forever and ever.” “He shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.” “It shall leave them neither root nor branch.” “They shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against Me.” “Were cast into the lake of fire; this is the second death.” This is the lake of fire into which death and hades (R. V.) themselves are to be cast. Other passages of the same effect could be quoted; the whole drift and trend of both the Old and New Testaments is in this direction, viz., that after the final judgment the wicked “will perish at the presence of God as wax melteth before the fire.” Certainly if destruction means continual existence and to perish means to live forever, then all the above argument is altogether unsound. But the disadvantage of interpreting Scripture in such a manner is that words lose thereby their ordinary meaning without giving any clue to their real meaning; and this we know is not the character of the way of God. “The way-faring men tho fools shall not err therein.” The awful mystery of the future destiny confronts us constantly. But let us take heart of grace. “He who reigns above,” “He who reigns below,” “He who reigns alone” will not inflict disproportionate punishment, and that is all we know in this state concerning the fate of the lost who dwell in hades. There is another point to be considered in the matter arising out of the passage “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” That sin should continue in the universe after the destruction of all other enemies of God seems not only unlikely, but contrary to all scripture.